SBA’s Awarding and Oversight of Small Business Investment Company Licenses

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) is issuing this evaluation report to assess the U.S. Small Business Administration’s process for awarding Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) licenses and its oversight of SBICs to ensure program integrity and mitigate financial loss. Our scope of work included 80 active leveraged SBICs licensed from October 1, 2022, through June 30, 2025. 

SBA established adequate SBIC licensing and oversight controls to provide reasonable assurance of compliance with regulatory and program requirements and complied with applicable requirements when awarding SBIC licenses and conducting oversight. We reviewed a small sample of licenses and examination reports based on our assessment of SBA’s licensing and oversight controls which provided reasonable assurance of SBA’s compliance with regulatory and program requirements. Specifically, of the 80 active SBICs that were licensed from October 1, 2022, through June 30, 2025, we reviewed four license approvals, one license pending approval, and three SBIC examination reports. We found no material deficiencies or problem areas warranting additional review. 

We made no recommendations in this report.